Schöne und das Biest
by Kaede Ravensdale
Summary: Summary inside because it wouldn't fit. Eremika
1. Ill-Fated Expedition

On her first mission in the Survey Corp. Cadet Mikasa Ackerman finds herself lost in the now hostile lost lands of Wall Maria after her squad is wiped out by an abnormal titan. Stranded and alone she must contend with injury, cold, Titans and wild animals in a world revealed to be far crueler and more terrifying than she'd ever imagined it before. But just as she thinks it all may end for her she finds herself in the company of a most unlikely savior; an enigmatic and very handsome deserter of the "organization" who is neither Human nor Titan but both. She has confidence that he'll prove to be humanity's salvation should he join the effort of the walls, but first she must contend with the issue of just how it is she'll get him there. And when war breaks out between humanity and his fellow Shifters, things swiftly get ugly.

**Won't be updating this one very much until I finish with Where Butterflies Never Die and One Bloody Kiss, both of which will hopefully be done soon. Best way to speed up updates is to put in reviews, otherwise it'll be updated only when I have the time.**

The thick stone gate rumbled open with a great shaking of the earth, dirt falling like small deluges of water from the spikes that had kept it lodged in place as the first glimpse of the sky over the now lost territories of Wall Maria was slowly revealed. Mikasa shifted slightly, barely able to contain her nervousness despite her famed ability to keep her emotions in perfect check regardless of the situation and sensing her unease the horse beneath her snorted and pawed at the ground. Her eyes flickered left and right around her, catching sight of her childhood friend Armin astride of dusty mare alongside Jean and Reiner with their squad, Sasha Krista and Ymir a little further back behind them, her own squad surrounding her, the Lance Corporal's squad of "elite's" near the middle of the waiting formation and the Commander himself at the very front. Time seemed to be moving as if she were in a nightmare; the type of dream where she was running as fast as she could from some enormous monster that wanted to eat her, but all it did was gain on her and all that she could do was run while making absolutely no progress at all. Then, at last, the gate reached the peak of its ascent and stopped and the command to charge was given; with her mind occupied by other things she didn't hear the words herself, but her horse-and her along with it-was swept up along with the stampeding tide thundering out through the tiny hole into the open and very hostile world. Pushing her nervousness firmly away through sheer force of will, Mikasa forced herself to focus fully on the reality of the present that was going on around her. The rutted and uneven dirt road clattering beneath the hooves of their war horses, the four other more senior member of the Corp. that made up her squad-Angelika Janz, a relatively small of stature brunet with silver eyes; Sibylle Kaiser, tall, lean and scarred with blue eyes; Abelard Swift, a well-built man with a beady black gaze that most found rather disconcerting; and her Squad Leader Ulrich Krauss, his salt and pepper hair conflicting with his smile-lined and youthful face-and the ruins of homes and other buildings that surrounded them on all sides.

"Usual maneuvers; the same thing they taught you in the Academy, real basic! Keep your eyes ahead, regardless of a titan running straight the fuck at us; it isn't your job to take care of them. Keep your eyes on the sky and respond accordingly to any smoke flares."

"Yes, Sir!" The seasons were just beginning to turn, so the air outside was still quite brusque and having it constantly rushing into her face made her shiver but it was something Mikasa ignored. The sky, blue and cloudless as it spiraled endlessly above them with the warm sun beating down on their heads, the rolling green hills stretching into the distance. Horses screamed off the their far left as a house collapsed around the Titan that had bounded through it but she tore her eyes away from the battle going on and continued surging forwards along with the others following the path sent before them. Hours passed with the horse beneath her and the occasional command from her squad leader ringing in her ears; runners weaved in and out of view carrying communications throughout the squads that made up the Legion. Occasional flares of green went up over the horizon as their course was amended to skirt a greater concentration of the Titan threat. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, and if things kept up the way that they had been then her first mission appeared to be a relatively uneventful one and she wasn't entirely sure how she should feel about that. Disappointment? Relief? Some other emotion all together? Before she could answer that question, out of the corner of one eye she caught sight of a pillar of jet black etching itself across the sky.

"We got an abnormal!" Sibylle called to the others, noticing the smoke as well. Their Squad Leader's eyes narrowed.

"It looks as if it's coming this way; prepare for battle, all of you! And keep a look out; get an eye on that thing!"

The hissing of blades being drawn from their sheathes was familiar to her, as was the shaking of the earth beneath the enormous feet of an as yet unseen Titan; she'd experienced both before during the frenzied battle for Trost District which had very nearly ended in failure for all of them. The small copse of trees a couple hundred yards off to their right was shaking violently, the trunks uprooting as the earth bucked and buckled. Then, all at once, the Titan came into view, streaking towards them across the open ground with its sight set directly on their squad.

"It's coming right for us!" Angelika yelped, her grey eyes widening in shocked surprise. A ten meter by the look of it, pot-bellied and drooling with features that were almost comically too small for its face and its head tilted to one side in a way that made it look almost as if its neck were broken. Its arms were held up and out to both sides and it seemed to be almost pigeon toed as it thundered forwards.

"Break rank; surround it!" They dispersed immediately, their Squad Leader charging his horse straight for the Titan as Sibylle and Abelard broke to one side and Angelika broke to the other leaving Mikasa to circle around to the rear. Open ground set them at a disadvantage from the start, giving them no choice but to grapple the hooks of their gear onto their target itself; an exceedingly dangerous maneuver that was widely advised against. The compressed gas hissed as it shot out the back of her gear, the hooks digging in to the flesh of the Titan's back as she launched herself off the back of her horse and into the air as the others around her did the same. Skidding to a stop in momentary confusion at the sudden disappearance of its intended prey, the Titan roared in pain and fury and it rounded on them. Blades flashed in the light of the sun, but the Titan moved at the last moment and escaped the fatal strike to deliver a blow of its own which forced the air from her body beneath cracking ribs and sent her flying to hit the ground with a jarring, painful thud. The initial collision and then a series of bounces as she was sent skidding across the grass, green plants and brown earth and blue sky all blurring together into on confusing mass of color and light until finally she stopped moving. Sore, bleeding and gasping for breath she lay on her back for a few moments after that, stunned with her mind attempting to pick up the pieces of what had just happened and what she had been doing. Her vision was blurry and unfocused, her hearing slowly coming back into full power. More roaring, more shouting. Forcing herself back onto her feet Mikasa ran back towards the raging battle just as the Titan swatted Angelika out of the air. Sibylle fell, then Abelard, and by the time she'd gotten the thing back into the range of her gear it had managed to catch hold of her squad leader in one enormous hand. She knew it would be too late to do anything even as she fired off her hooks yet again and swung through the air, using the Titan's distraction to drive her twin blades deep into the nap of the neck. An explosion of steam, the sensation of falling and then yet another jarring impact before everything went black.


	2. Sagittarius

She regained consciousness slowly to find the long grass swaying back and forth across her view of the now black sky. Night had fallen; it was cloudless and the full moon and countless stars shone down on her head from above leaving her with just enough light to see. The remains of the Titan were completely gone by now, dissolved away to nothing, but the massacre it had made of her squad were still present in the form of the blood and broken bodies that littered the clearing around her. It was cold, her aching body stiff with the chill and skin slick with the formation of dew. Slowly, as she lay there, the reality that she had been left behind, left for dead, sent in like a lead weight on her soul. She was certainly doomed to die if she just lay there and had little chance of survival even if she did somehow get to her feet and make her way back towards Wall Rose but Mikasa Ackerman had never been the type to just roll over and submit to the will of the universe; she'd survived so much already-the murder of her parents, kidnapping by human traffickers, the pulling off of a near impossible escape, survival in the mountains for almost a month before Armin had found her-and wasn't about to let something like this kill her. _If I'm going to stand any chance at all I have to get up and walk._ But could she? After two shattering impacts with the earth she had little doubt that at least a few of her bones were broken. It was difficult to move, her limbs stiffened by cold and hours of lying immobile but the wintry conditions came as both a curse and a blessing in disguise; while the danger of hypothermia was real unless she managed to find shelter or a fire soon, her body had been numbed to the point where she could no longer feel the pain of her injuries. Looking down at herself as she managed to drag her battered form up onto all fours and then to full height Mikasa found a pattern of bruises spreading across her skin like blue-black ink, blood soaking her shredded clothing, and the bone protruding grotesquely from her left arm which hung limp at her side. It was less of a walk and more of a drunken stumble as she tottered desperately towards the tree line, seeking to get away from open ground as quickly as possible all without realizing that she was in fact heading in completely the wrong direction. The lay of the land was entirely unfamiliar, the ground rising and falling with hills and valleys, the frozen soil broken by stones and knotted roots over which she tripped and often fell. It was so cold; she could feel the chill seeping into her flesh and freezing her bones solid to become brittle as ice but she couldn't stop. At night she didn't hear the shaking of Titan footsteps; even they seemed to sleep. Through her exhaustion she pressed on until the sun rose, at which time she hide beneath the hollowed out trunk of a tree until night fell again and the movement of the giants stopped once again. Something, a wolf or a coyote, howled off in the distance as an owl floated above her in the trees. The bleeding was beginning to become difficult to ignore, making her head spin and her legs shake violently until finally she was forced to stop and improvise tourniquets where she could from her destroyed jacket. Then, again, she resumed walking. _How have I not reached the wall by now?_ She wondered, sure she should be able to see the walls by now but only finding more dark trees on all sides. _We were only riding for half a day. It isn't possible that we could have gone that far, is it?_ Something small skittering off into the undergrowth. The wind blowing through the limbs of the trees. The clouds blocking out the moon as they skated across the sky. Finally, after two days travel the stress, exertion and injuries became too much. This time, when she fell, she didn't have the strength to get back up. Mikasa lay there, her battered shivering body partially curled around herself with the frozen solid ground pressing hard against her as her vision shifted in and out of focus with a gradual increase from dimming to total black out. Cold earth. Cold wind. Dark sky. Green eyes. A warm hand resting on her shoulder as a young man in a hunter's garb leaned over her.

"Try and stay awake," his voice echoed painfully in her head and seemed to close in on her from all directions. "You're wounded badly; I'll do what I can for you, but if you lose consciousness there's little chance that you'll regain it!"

_Who…is he?_ She'd never seen him before, and from what she could make out of him through the darkness-ragged unruly brown hair cut by a knife, a handsome but wind tanned face, the quiver and bow swung across his back and the hand-made leather clothing that he wore-this rugged youth was definitely not from the confines of the walls. But the prospect that anything human could possibly survive out in the Titan-infested wilderness was mind bending. _I'm so tired. I can't…stay awake. Please, just let me sleep. _Despite the other's best efforts-be he a figment of her dying mind or an apparition of a miracle-her eyes fell closed and for the third time everything around her went black.

She didn't know how much later that it was when she awoke, but when her eyes once again fluttered open she'd been tucked carefully into a ruggedly built bed assembled from cedar wood and rough fiber cotton. A wood-burning fire blazed in the stone hearth of the room where she now found herself filling it with sweet smelling smoke, the sparsely furnished walls made of rough-hewn wood hinting at the nature of the building being that of a cabin. Her wounds had been treated; disinfecting ointment, bandages and splints applied to them all in turn. The door to whatever lay beyond the room was tightly shut. She still felt sluggish, and the pain of her injuries had finally begun to make itself known to her.

"Where am I?"

"My home." The voice made her jump as the door swung open to reveal the youth from the forest, this time without his quiver and bow. "You're safe here, don't worry. You may ask me whatever you see fit and I will answer what I can for you, on the condition that you put the recovery from your injuries above any other concerns you may have. Agreeable?" Crossing the room, her savior pulled up a wooden chair beside the bed and sat down before holding out a cup of steaming broth for her to take. "You've been out for three days; you'll need this to begin to regain your strength."

"Thank you," she told him, reaching out with shaking hands to take the warm cup. He helped her hold on to it as she raised it to her badly chapped lips; the salty broth burned painfully, but she ignored its scalding temperature and ravenously finished the small bowl within a few seconds before allowing her host to take it back. Now, in the light of the day, she could finally see exactly what he looked like. The mysterious woodsman who had come to her aid when she'd needed it most couldn't have been much older than she was; his skin was the golden color of honey and his eyes were like chips of fine turquoise as he took in the sight of her curiously observing him.

"Like what you see, little soldier girl?" he smirked. "If you were to know the truth of my nature, you may come to find that my 'shiny wrapper' does little the reconcile the beast inside."

Was he trying to tell her that he was dangerous? Perhaps that he hadn't retreated to the safety of Wall Rose because he was wanted for some terrible crime? But surely he couldn't be a threat; if he had any intention of killing her, why would he have saved her life. And why would he still be helping her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Eren Jeager. And I've been out here for a very long time; at first I lived outside of Maria, but after the Colossal broke through the wall I took advantage of the opening to move inwards to a slightly safer location."

"But…there are Titans everywhere outside of the walls. And here for that matter! How could you possibly consider the lost territories safe!" All he did was laugh.

"If I attempted to explain that to you I doubt you would believe me, not to mention the sheer amount of undue stress such information is likely to cause you. Ask me of my true nature again when you've recovered, and I may tell you. For now, all that I will say is that Titans run towards you in hunger but flee before me in utter terror. And for good reason." Perfectly relaxed, he reclined in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Is there anything that you can tell me?" she asked him, desperate for information despite the pounding headache that had blossomed not long after she'd opened her eyes. "Anything about what you are or where you came from, or even what you're doing here. It's clear from the way that you talk that you are, at the very least, not a normal human."

"I suppose I can tell you a few things. Vague things. Though I don't doubt since information will likely make you uncomfortable."

"Trust me, making me 'uncomfortable' is exceedingly difficult after all that I've lived through. I doubt that anything you can say will surprise me over much."

Eren raised his eye brows, then smirked at her again. "Very well. I am old. _Very _old. I remember a time where Humanity was wide-spread across the entire world. Where your people lived in great cities with buildings that reached towards the sky and great carriages that ran without horses, and even machines that could ferry people through the sky. I remember the first time I opened my eyes. You see, I was never born. Myself and those like me were first created in a lab by a…separatist religious group known only as The Organization which wanted nothing but to bring the end of the world as they knew it. They called it _The Extinction Project_ and it was for that purpose that my kind, and the Titans we commanded as a human general would a battalion of soldiers, were first created. They set us loose with little direction to bring down the empire that your people had created. Humanity was lost; they'd no idea what they were facing, no idea how to combat something many times their size that healed as quickly as it was wounded. So in desperation they built the walls, and refugees from thousands of miles around made a mad dash for the safety of the last arc of refuge. It was my job to hunt down said survivors and kill them before they could reach safety. I have tasted human flesh and blood many times. Killing is something I enjoy. But there came to be a time where I felt that I was not satisfied with so simplistic a purpose to my life. Surely I had been created for something more. Something better. But The Organization was not fond of my…change in attitude. They tried to rope me back in, and when I would not bow they tried to kill me. And so I fled, and I've been fleeing for almost 200 years. I make my life in such provisional settlements as these; to keep my location a secret I move every few years, leaving standing my temporary homes only to later build a new one when I decide to settle down. It is a lonely existence of subsisting on the land, but I am free to do as I please with myself and with my life and I can ask for nothing more. There's nothing that I have a right to complain about."

So he was a hunter of humanity? He'd killed before? Even eaten his victims? He'd informed her that he'd never been born but rather created in some lab, and that he'd lived far longer than any human ever could. Was it possible that he was some sort of titan? And if that was true, what did he ultimately plan to do with her? These questions and many more raged across her mind in the matter of only a few moments, but her mind centered on one word. "Free." She could taste it, almost. The flavor of fresh air and the woods after a cool spring rain. "What is it like to live free, without any walls to shut you in? What is it like to have no King? No Commander or Corporal? To be your own person?" That was the one question she really hoped that he would answer. For a long time Eren remained silent, gazing at her in a mixture of surprise and curiosity as if her reaction had been the last thing he'd expected to be met with.

"I could explain it to you, but I think such an attempt would end up sounding sentimental and contrived." He rose from the chair and turned to walk out, but she lunged forwards and grabbed his wrist.

"Wait! You said that you'd answer my questions, so why not that one?"

"Simple; it's impossible to explain. Attempting to do so would end up the same as you attempting to explain the color green to a person who is blind." He told her, gently removing himself from her grasp and crossing the room towards the door. Just as he was about to leave, he stopped and turned back. "Though I will promise you something; put your energy into healing and don't question my attempts to treat you, and, perhaps, you can stay with me here so I can show you."


End file.
